COGNITIVE SCIENCE: A
MULTI-DISCIPLINARY INTRODUCTION (01:185:201)
Spring 2003
Time:
Tuesdays 9:30-11:30 am Location: Allison Road Classroom 206
Organizer:
Karin Stromswold E-mail: karin@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Phone: (732) 445-2448 Office
hours: Thursday 1-2:30 pm (Busch
Psych 233)
READINGS:
Textbook: E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn
(1999). What is cognitive science?
Malden, MA: Blackwell,
Readings: A binder containing
additional required readings may be
purchased from the Cognitive Science main office (Busch Psychology Building
Addition, Room A129).
Course Website and Bulletin
Boards: http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/courses/S2003cogsci201.html
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
1. Two short papers (5 -7
double spaced pages)
For
each paper, you may choose any topic that has been covered in the lectures
and/or readings. The first paper will be due on March 11, and the second one on April
29. If you hand in a paper late, a
half a grade will be deducted for each day it is late.
You
may choose among the following options for your short papers:
1. PAPER SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE: Pick one of the assigned readings. Go the References section at the end of that reading, and choose
one of the articles/chapters cited in the References. (Begin by selecting a
few, look them up in the library, and then make your final pick.) Once you've
made your choice, write a summary of that article. It is important that the
summary include your original critique and thoughts—e.g., how does the article
fit into the bigger scheme of things, and (if it is an experimental paper) do
the experiments address the issues they were meant to address, etc. Turn in a
copy of the article along with your summary.
2.
TOPIC SUMMARY AND CRITIQUE: This is
similar to Choice #1 except that, instead of summarizing a specific article,
you are summarizing one of the topics
covered in class. Pick one of the lectures given so far, and write a summary of
research on a topic that the lecture covered—and how it relates to Cognitive
Science more generally. Again, the summary must include your original critique
and thoughts.
3.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL: For one of the topics
covered in class, think of what research you'd want to conduct, in order to
address some issues that are still open / have not been adequately addressed.
It is important that the paper first motivate the research you are proposing:
Why would conducting the proposed research be important? What issues would it
address? How does it advance on what is already known?
Papers should include a bibliography (references) that cites 4 or 5 articles or chapters. (References are not included in the page limit.). Two criteria will be used in grading your papers: (1) your summary of previous work; (2) your original thoughts and critique
2. Class participation.
Class
attendance and participation are an integral part of this course. You may miss at most two lectures during the
semester. For every absence beyond that, your course grade will be lowered by a
half grade.
3. Online questions and
comments on readings. To help focus and promote class discussion, prior to each class,
you must submit at least one short question or comment about the reading(s) for
that class. Questions and comments must be posted at least 24 hours prior the
lecture. To post questions/comments, go the following website:
http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/courses/S2003cogsci201.html
Click
on the name of the appropriate lecturer. Then follow the instructions on the
page to post your questions/comments for that lecturer. You
are encouraged to respond to other students’ comments.
1/21: Zenon Pylyshyn
(Psychology/RuCCS): Introduction to
Cognitive Science
Pylyshyn, Z. (1999). What is
in your mind? In E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 1-25.
1/28: Randy Gallistel
(Psychology/RuCCS): Foundations of Cognitive Science
Gallistel, C.R. (1990).
"Representations." Chapter 2 from
The organization of learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gallistel, C.R. (2001).
“Psychology of Mental Representations.” In
Encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences. New York: Elsevier.
2/4: Jerry Fodor (Philosophy/RuCCS):
What are concepts?
Fodor, J. A. (1998).
“Unphilosophical introduction: What concepts have to be.” Chapter 2 from Concepts.
Oxford University Press.
2/11: Stephen Stich (Philosophy/RuCCS):
Rationality
Samuels, R., Stich, S. & Tremoulet, P. (1999) Rethinking rationality: From bleak implications to Darwinian modules. In E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 74-120.
2/18: Alan Leslie (Psychology/RuCCS): The development of theory of mind
Leslie, A. M. (2000).
"Theory of Mind" as a mechanism of selective attention. In M. S.
Gazzaniga (ed.), The new cognitive
neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1235-1248 (http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/~aleslie/publicat.html)
2/25: Rochel Gelman (Psychology/RuCCS):
Numerical development
Gelman, R. (1998). Domain
specificity in cognitive development: Universals and nonuniversals. In Sabourin, M., Craik, F. and Robert, M. (Eds.) Advances
in psychological science: Vol. 2. Biological
and cognitive aspects. Hove, Eng: Psychology Press Ltd.
Cordes, S., Gelman, R.,
Gallistel, C.R., & Whalen, J. (2001) Variability signatures distinguish
verbal from non-verbal counting-even in the small number range. Psychonomics
Bulletin & Review, 8(4), 698-707
3/4: Karin Stromswold
(Psychology/RuCCS): Language development
Stromswold, K. (1999).
Cognitive and neural aspects of language acquisition. In E. Lepore & Z.
Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive
science? Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 356-400.
3/11: Jane Grimshaw:
(Linguistics/RuCCS): Title: TBA.
FIRST PAPER DUE.
Reading: TBA
3/18: SPRING BREAK
3/25: Alan Prince (Linguistics/RuCCS):
Optimality Theory
Tesar,
B., Grimshaw, J. & Prince, A (1999). Linguistic and cognitive explanations
in
optimality theory. In E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive science?
Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 295-326.
Prince,
Alan and Paul Smolensky. 1997. Optimality: From Neural Networks to Universal
Grammar. Science 275, 1604-1610. 580K/pdf.
http://ling.rutgers.edu/gamma/sciencearticle.pdf
Prince,
Alan and Paul Smolensky. To appear. Optimality Theory in Phonology. Article for
Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. 17pp. 200Kb/pdf.
http://ling.rutgers.edu/gamma/oiel.pdf
4/1 Bruce Tesar
(Linguistics/RuCCS): Learnability
theory.
Tesar,
B., Grimshaw, J. & Prince, A (1999). Linguistic and cognitive explanations
in
optimality theory. In E. Lepore & Z. Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA:
Blackwell, pp. 295-326.
4/8: Matthew Stone (Computer
Science/RuCCS): Computational models of the world
Stone, M. (to appear) “Agents
in the real world.” In What is Cognitive
Science?, Second edition. (http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~mdstone/pubs/whatis.pdf)
4/15: Ilona Kovacs (Psychology/LVR):
Title: TBA
Reading: TBA
4/22: Thomas Papathomas (Biomedical Engineering/LVR): Interaction of top-down and bottom-up
processes in visual perception.
Papathomas, T. (1999) The brain as a hypothesis constructing and testing agent, in E. Lepore
& Z. Pylyshyn (eds.), What is cognitive science? Malden, MA:Blackwell, pp. 230-247
4/29: Doug DeCarlo (Computer Science/RuCCS): Visual interaction.
SECOND PAPER DUE.
Reading: TBA